Roof chopped BMW mini cooper S

[rkde]

Sadly I have done some serious damage to my back meaning I can hardly move and its even making it tricky to drive. This is going to delay me a while but I have lots of little mods I can get on with while I can't do big items. I have sent the gearbox off to have it re-built and checked to ensure that it is all good and all the cones and bearings are in perfect working order

some bumper pictures to give you a good idea of how it looks.

Managed to print off the alternator bracket to trial before I make the metal one

Supercharger nose bracket, again this is a printed version done in my stratasys

 

[Robotstar5]

Sorry to hear about the back I've done mine a few times so can sympathise.

You are so proud of your bumper, it gets displayed on the sideboard

 

[rkde]

can't lie I am really pleased with it but now its living in the garage.

Hope to get the back moving again soon, even went out and purchased an automatic because I am struggling with the clutch... should be good in a few weeks (please)

 

[Cris B]

...again this is a printed version done in my stratasys

You have a 3D printer?

 

[Dev]

A 3D printer is top of my list of moneynoobject toys. Anyone ever used one of the print and deliver services?

 

[rkde]

Its a cool toy to own but since my business is new product design its become an essential tool enabling me to turn concepts into reality quickly. Also its very cost effective for me to trial things on my projects too.

I have one of them reprap type printers at home but it isn't all that great but then it was a little home project. The professional 3D printers like the one I have in the office hold good tolerances and do a very nice job much better than the open source projects...

I can't advertise any services here but if you goolge search rkde and you know I am a designer I am sure you will find me.

I use prototype houses every week for different projects as sometimes the items need more work than just printing. The only downside is the time it takes to print and get to you where I can print lots of items in the time and cost a lot less.

 

[cracker666]

That front bumper would look the nuts on our R53 m8
Your on mini torque as well.
Thought I recognised your nick

 

[rkde]

Yep I am on MT and many other forums

Not been able to get much done to the car because of the issue with my back, slowly its getting better but to make life more interesting we went out today and purchased a 73 bug which is going to be the Sunday project and blue will continue to be my Saturday project
(new bug project to come soon ) then when the new mini is done its time to start on the classic

 

[rkde]

Having printed my prototype brackets quite a while ago I finally really had time to get them on the engine.

The past few months have seen me out of action with a very poorly back to the point where the project has been on hold. Thank you for all the support messages and given a month I have a real want to push this project onwards. Some of you may have also noticed that I have another project on my blog, this is one for myself and my other half to do together, a lovely example of a late 72 build 73 plate bug... Looking forward to making it into a show winning example one day (2 year project)

Any way just a quick update to show the bracket in place on the engine, they are quite simple brackets and seam quite strong even in the printed abs plastic.

Really pleased with the alternator bracket, it looks excellent. I did not want to tuck the alternator into the space of the sump as I want as much road clearance as possible. I am really pleased with how it fits

The supercharger sitting snugly on the bracket fully bolted down. Now all I need to do is get the steel item made

Again another photo of the blower in place, really saddens me to see how much paint I have taken off the blower putting it in and out, oh well nothing a little bit of paint will not fix. When I have the steel item I will be able to triple check the length of nose required for the blower and I can then add the last bits and store the engine ready to go back in.

 

[rkde]

Had my steel parts turn up and they look quite nice, still got to weld some brackets on them for other items but they look really good and should help me finish the engine off. Once I am happy with all the fit I am going to re-paint everything again to make it look lovely then I will scratch it all up when I put the engine back in

 

[ale36]

any updated on this build?

 

[rkde]

No not really been out of action with a very painful back issue. Have managed to limp the engine together though. Just need a few more parts and it will be ready. Hoping to get to the bodyshop this weekend to see the car and see if anything has happened or when it is likely...

With all the metal parts in hand I got some small chance to fit it all. Really pleased with all the clearance, only issue I have is there is a bolt under the blower just a little too close to the water pump but a file will sort that out and give me clearance I will be happy with. The cooper water pipe behind the blower is really going to aid the cooling especially with the custom head gasket with different size water ports.

Its nice to see the majority of the engine bolted together and all the parts feel strong. The lower bracket at the bottom is only tacked together at the moment as I ran out of Argon but I should get some more this week then I can finish the welding and shape the corners etc to make it look lovely.

Going to loose the red manifold as I really am not sure I like it.

I hope that in the next 2 weeks I will have all the mock parts made up and then I will assemble the whole thing for the final time and I can finish the gearbox off.

Yes I know the knock sensor is not in the right place

 

[cracker666]

That don't look like a eaton, you got a sprintex?.

 

[rkde]

No its not an eaton but its also not a sprintex, it is a twin screw but its a lysholm 1200 probably would have been a lot easier just to put a blower that fits on...

the sprintex only pumps 0.94l per/rev this one does about 1.2l per/rev also most of the sprintex units are having major seal failure and alot of the guys I know are quite disappointed with them so I am glad I took my own route. Also the mechanical water pump will beat the electric pump all day long and where it is placed will give me better cooling. I did have to have a special head gasket made for the water flow to be correct though

 

[rkde]

So... we have been here before but this time its happening properly!

So first lets walk in to the booth which was nice and warm, in there was my tailgate and the rear bumper I built which just to jog your memory was a one bumper with a GP style trim moulded on. Trim will be painted to suit the arches, guess they will do that next week.

Again the roof is ready to take a mould of. Glad its got to this point and I hope in a few weeks we will be getting the car ready to fully paint... I really hope so. First we have to make a mould of this roof but its looking really good

The bodyshop are going to put a few layers of mould release on the roof all week so hopefully at the end of the week we can make a mould.

Who knows, maybe the car will get finished this year...

 

[rkde]

Today we got to see how well the mould turned out and if we can finally move on. Normally I hate trying to remove an item from a mould as with me being so heavy handed I normally break something. With my thumbs under the corner of the mould and pushed up, with a very small amount of effort the mould lifted from the roof.

Mould placed on the floor

The heat of the fibre glass caused the roof to shrink leaving a huge crack, luckily for me the roof shrunk after the mould had cured

I then trimmed the mould down and placed it back on the car ready for next week when I will make the actual roof, let's hope that this goes well...

 

[davenport]

nice work fella... things are really coming together now....

 

[Robotstar5]

Somewhere near Earlswood lakes?

 

[rkde]

Yes that would be 100% correct

 

[rkde]

Another week has passed and I wish I had the funds to not work and spend sometime with the car, anyhow I had to make a modification to the mould made last time. This involved taking a large ply board and glassing it to the rear of the mould, once this set the mould was fully rigid and was ready to make the roof.

I started with a gel coat and 3% catalist as it was a little cool outside, I mixed in some black colouring as applied it to the heavily wax roof, there is 2 layers of gel which will be great if I need to sand the final product in any place.

Once the gel had tacked off I added the resin, 2 layers of 450g chop strand mat followed by a full layer of 3mm core mat and finally 1layer of 600g mat and a final coat of 450g mat. In total 15kg of resin was used so this is not a light weight roof but has some good structure to it and hopefully unlike the last poor attempt made for me this one will not sag and collapse as I know I did everything correct.

The paint shop are now keen to get the car in and painted so all is looking good for the car being done for next year